Two senior Conservative party politicians, Damian Green and Dominic Grieve,
have been left embarrassed over a "bridge throwing" incident while
studying at Oxford University 35 years ago.

They are now two senior members of the Government, helping to shape policy on law and order.

But yesterday light was cast on a rather undignified incident three decades ago when Dominic Grieve, the Attorney General and Damian Green, a Home Office minister, were carefree students at Oxford University.

It was claimed that Mr Green, the man now responsible for the police, was thrown off a bridge and into the River Cherwell by a group, which included Mr Grieve.

Undergraduates working for Cherwell, the university’s student newspaper, have unearthed a story describing how a group of students set upon the former President of the Oxford Union more than 35 years ago.

Last night neither politician was prepared to comment on whether the report was an accurate reflection on the events of December 1977, when Mr Green, who was at Balliol College, plunged more than 12 feet.

According to the report, written by two undergraduates, Eamonn Matthews and Michael Crick – now two high profile journalists – the incident occurred in the grounds of Magdalen College, after a Sunday night dinner.

Six undergraduates accused of being involved had their membership of the student union suspended a few days later over the incident.

The group were named at the time as being Mr Grieve, Nicholas Leviseur, Tim Clarke, Julian Chadwick, Simon Hardman-Lea and Gavin Grahame.

They have all gone on to forge successful careers in politics, law, medicine and business.

"The whole affair started at the end of the Magdalen guest night dinner on Sunday, where Green and Ceiri Roberts, this term’s Union returning officer, were guests," the Cherwell report stated.

"Green was grabbed by about a dozen Magdalen undergraduates and some of their guests, and forcibly carried to the bridge over the Cherwell at the back of the College. Green was dropped from a height of 12 feet into one-and-a-half feet of water.

“In his fall he missed being impaled on some rusty spikes by only a few inches. Fortunately, it was his shoulder which hit the stony bottom first.”

It added: “But as Green told Cherwell: ‘I could easily have hit my head on the bottom, been concussed, and drowned’.”

Last night Mr Crick, now a Political Correspondent for Channel 4 News, said the story was accurate. Mr Matthews is an acclaimed maker of documentaries who operates Quicksilver Media.

“I stand by my story, and it has always amused me,” the former Newsnight political editor told the Independent.

“It was a very famous incident at the time. Everybody in the university was talking about it.”

At the time, Mr Green’s version was vigorously disputed, particularly by Mr Leviseur, who threatened to sue him for slander.

Last night, he said: “I would, I fear, be at best the purveyor of most unreliable evidence given the state of my memory.”

Mr Grieve, who was President of the Oxford University Conservative Association in 1977, was aggrieved about his suspension from the union.

“This has effectively prevented me from being able to apologise to Damian in the way I want to,” he told Cherwell.

It remains unclear what provoked the incident or why they targeted Mr Green, who later became a financial journalist at the BBC, Channel 4 News and The Times.

As Attorney General, Mr Grieve, who read history at Magdalen College, has recently spoken up repeatedly for victims of petty hooliganism and anti-social behaviour, stressing the importance of catching and punishing culprits.